Spotify sets eyes on US market, to launch music service by July 5

Swedish DRM-based music streaming service Spotify is set to launch in the US in a few weeks, a company spokesperson said.

Jonathan Forster, Spotify's advertising chief and head of European operations, announced at a conference in London earlier this week that few licensing deals are yet to be signed before the launch of the service in US by July 5.

The company has faced several problems over the licensing with the labels in the past which hampered the launch in the US.

Earlier, the company announced a possible partnership with Facebook to combine the streaming music service with the social networking site but the functionality was only limited to five European countries where Spotify is currently active.

The site streams music from a range of major and independent record labels including EMI, Sony, Warner Music Group and Universal. The service had approximately 10 million users in 2010, out of which 1,000,000 were paid subscribers.

It is not clear if that deal has given unenthusiastic labels more incentive to chalk out deals with Spotify, the PC World said.